If necessary, you can review the the IPlan Assignment sheet here. Complete the process shown in the diagram below by following the steps and answering the questions for each step.
a. Take a few minutes to reflect on your strengths and weaknesses as a teacher. As a teacher, I need to learn to improve upon my classroom management skills. There is also some need to keep planning well in advance, although I am not certain as to if this is due to my cooperating teacher's help, or lack thereof.
I think that I am quite capable of producing creative and engaging lessons for the most part, as well.
b. Describe some of your students' strengths and needs that you have noticed so far. My students are from a fairly wealthy community, and most have adequate parental support for school at home. However, I find that a major problem with many of my students would be motivation. Many students are of average and above average intelligence, yet they lack effort in schoolwork and related activities. In all of this, there are a few students who are feeling as if they are not challenged enough in their work, and are somewhat bored in class.
c. Download and complete this URI Self Evaluation form based on one of the lessons you taught last week. Be sure to write down specific evidence from either your lesson plan or your memory of your enactment for each assessment you give. Use a highlighter to identify areas of your teaching/lesson that were either below standard or that you feel needs improvement.
a. Review your school improvement document(s). (If you forgot them, download a SALT visit.)
b. Synthesize your review by completing the following table as best your can:
What is the need?
How will improvement help your students?
How will improvement help your school?
RIBT Standard/Element Addressed?
1.
differentiated instruction
Rather than leaving all students at the exact same level, to struggle or be bored, we can challenge those who are suffering from boredom and help other students who are struggling to reach their potential.
When all of the students are taken into account, the improvement that occurs will eventually impact the entire school, one student at a time.
RIBT 3.1, .2, .3: Teachers create instructional opportunities that reflect an understanding of how students learn and develop. RIBT 4.1, .2, .3, .4: Teachers create instructional opportunities that reflect a respect for the diversity of learners and an understanding of how students differ in their approaches to learning.
2.
considerable time spent upon whole-group lessons
Finding a healthy balance within the classroom will encourage students to actively engage in the material that they are learning.
Throughout the school, students will eventually learn how to work together with other students, and become self-directed learners.
Teachers will be learning how to create experiences for their students that teach students to value their own educational experience.
RIBT 5: Teachers create instructional opportunities to encourage students' development of critical thinking, problem solving, and performance skills.
3.
technology awareness and usage
Students are in a technologically demanding society, where being able to use technology appropriately and effectively is important.
With this improvement, the entire school will learn how to use technology effectively, and students will be able to carry this knowledge into high school and the world.
Students can further use technology to expand their base of knowledge, and connect to the world around them as well.
RIBT 8.3: Teachers use effective communication as the vehicle through which students explore, conjecture, discuss, and investigate new ideas; including electronic means of collecting and sharing information, to enrich discourse in the classroom.
4.
cooperative learning strategies
Students will at least be learning about how to work appropriately, respectfully, and effectively with others. If the groups are organized carefully by the instructor, certain students could act as a form of scaffold for others who are falling behind, they in turn learning much more than they would be otherwise.
In the school, this skill of working together will lead to valuable extracurricular experiences, better group-work classes (the students already know how to work in a group) and conflict resolution.
RIBT 6: Teachers create an effective learning environment that encourages appropriate standards of behavior, positive social interaction, active engagement in learning, and self-motivation.
Formulate a professional development goal based the needs that you have identified. This goal should be:
measurable/observable
should lead to improvement of teaching, student achievement, and/or improvement of learning environment.
should describe new knowledge or skills that you will acquire and how that knowledge/skill will affect the school/district setting.
linked to applicable Rhode Island Beginning Teacher Standards and elements, e.g. RIBTS 2.4.
In the space below, describe your professional development goal. In a second paragraph, use the information above to provide a rationale for your goal by explaining the personal need that it will address as well as how addressing this goal benefits your students and your school.
I. Professional Development Goal
As a new teacher, I would like to be able to focus upon creating experiences that challenge students to think beyond rote recollection into higher levels of knowledge of the topic; and in the process encouraging students to become lifelong, self-directed learners. Students are commonly expected to know the definition of a topic, and perhaps be able to explain and organize information given. However, this does not lead to students having a deep and personal understanding of the topic at hand, nor does it encourage them to evaluate how the material applies to their own lives. In my own view, being able to see the topic in action within your life through what you learn is perhaps the goal of a learning experience.
According to the SALT report from 2002, Curtis Corner has a propensity having teachers who engage their students in real-world situations, however they engage their classrooms in whole-group lessons. These "whole-group lessons" have a tendancy to lead students into a loop of passivity, rather than being actively involved within the class.
Now that you have a PD goal, think about what type of learning opportunities you will participate in to address your needs. Use these links to investigate learning options:
Based on what you have found out, write a 1-2 paragraph narrative outlining at least two ways (PD categories) you will engage in engage in by the end of your first year of teaching. For each activity, explain how you think it will address the need that you have identified.
II. Professional Development Plan
The first activity that I would like to engage in would be the GEMS-NET inquiry assessment task workshop. (These workshops place an emphasis on hands-on activities and a variety of methods to show that students are fully showing their understanding of the topic. According to the description of the workshop, they intend to model 'research based scientific writing strategies' which I am supposing means 'writing strategies that have been proven to help students learn how to write scientifically'. Scientific writing is an often overlooked compoent of the scientific process, especially if students wish to continue their education beyond secondary school.
The second activitiy that I would like to engage in would be attending a Save-the-Bay program involving both math and science through field data collection. The activity teaches about how to make the online data accessible to your students, and be able to teach students how to at least begin to answer questions they may have about the bay. This activity is of interest to me, in that mathematics have always been difficult to make interesting or relevant to the world around students. Here, they are actively involved in learning how to take field data and evaluate it regarding the changes in the ecosystem. Since this particular school system resides so close to the ocean, I think that it would be beneficial to my students if I could help them learn how to engage in their environment.
Print your PD plan to PDF
Post your PD Plan to True Outcomes
Return to True Outcomes to evaluate a peer's plan the following week.
EDC 484 IPlan Synthesis
If necessary, you can review the the IPlan Assignment sheet here. Complete the process shown in the diagram below by following the steps and answering the questions for each step.
You can review the Rhode Island Beginning Teacher Standards (RIBTs) here.
a. Take a few minutes to reflect on your strengths and weaknesses as a teacher.
As a teacher, I need to learn to improve upon my classroom management skills. There is also some need to keep planning well in advance, although I am not certain as to if this is due to my cooperating teacher's help, or lack thereof.
I think that I am quite capable of producing creative and engaging lessons for the most part, as well.
b. Describe some of your students' strengths and needs that you have noticed so far.
My students are from a fairly wealthy community, and most have adequate parental support for school at home. However, I find that a major problem with many of my students would be motivation. Many students are of average and above average intelligence, yet they lack effort in schoolwork and related activities. In all of this, there are a few students who are feeling as if they are not challenged enough in their work, and are somewhat bored in class.
c. Download and complete this URI Self Evaluation form based on one of the lessons you taught last week. Be sure to write down specific evidence from either your lesson plan or your memory of your enactment for each assessment you give. Use a highlighter to identify areas of your teaching/lesson that were either below standard or that you feel needs improvement.
a. Review your school improvement document(s). (If you forgot them, download a SALT visit.)
b. Synthesize your review by completing the following table as best your can:
RIBT 4.1, .2, .3, .4: Teachers create instructional opportunities that reflect a respect for the diversity of learners and an understanding of how students differ in their approaches to learning.
Teachers will be learning how to create experiences for their students that teach students to value their own educational experience.
Students can further use technology to expand their base of knowledge, and connect to the world around them as well.
Formulate a professional development goal based the needs that you have identified. This goal should be:
In the space below, describe your professional development goal. In a second paragraph, use the information above to provide a rationale for your goal by explaining the personal need that it will address as well as how addressing this goal benefits your students and your school.
I. Professional Development Goal
As a new teacher, I would like to be able to focus upon creating experiences that challenge students to think beyond rote recollection into higher levels of knowledge of the topic; and in the process encouraging students to become lifelong, self-directed learners. Students are commonly expected to know the definition of a topic, and perhaps be able to explain and organize information given. However, this does not lead to students having a deep and personal understanding of the topic at hand, nor does it encourage them to evaluate how the material applies to their own lives. In my own view, being able to see the topic in action within your life through what you learn is perhaps the goal of a learning experience.According to the SALT report from 2002, Curtis Corner has a propensity having teachers who engage their students in real-world situations, however they engage their classrooms in whole-group lessons. These "whole-group lessons" have a tendancy to lead students into a loop of passivity, rather than being actively involved within the class.
Now that you have a PD goal, think about what type of learning opportunities you will participate in to address your needs. Use these links to investigate learning options:
Based on what you have found out, write a 1-2 paragraph narrative outlining at least two ways (PD categories) you will engage in engage in by the end of your first year of teaching. For each activity, explain how you think it will address the need that you have identified.
II. Professional Development Plan
The first activity that I would like to engage in would be the GEMS-NET inquiry assessment task workshop. (These workshops place an emphasis on hands-on activities and a variety of methods to show that students are fully showing their understanding of the topic. According to the description of the workshop, they intend to model 'research based scientific writing strategies' which I am supposing means 'writing strategies that have been proven to help students learn how to write scientifically'. Scientific writing is an often overlooked compoent of the scientific process, especially if students wish to continue their education beyond secondary school.The second activitiy that I would like to engage in would be attending a Save-the-Bay program involving both math and science through field data collection. The activity teaches about how to make the online data accessible to your students, and be able to teach students how to at least begin to answer questions they may have about the bay. This activity is of interest to me, in that mathematics have always been difficult to make interesting or relevant to the world around students. Here, they are actively involved in learning how to take field data and evaluate it regarding the changes in the ecosystem. Since this particular school system resides so close to the ocean, I think that it would be beneficial to my students if I could help them learn how to engage in their environment.